burnout

burnout

I recently read an article of the University of Amsterdam about why Millenials are being hit by burnout complaints. Psychologist Thijs Launchpach explained why precisely this group is so vulnerable to burnout complaints and stress.

First of all, i need to say that this is a great time to grow up being an adult. There is a lot of property and technology makes things possible that we believe 20 years ago were impossible. Everyone is available worldwide wherever you are and all your knowledge now fits in your pocket. But why is it that so many people have feelings of loneliness, anxiety and burnout complaints? Research has shown that worldwide burnout complaints are most common in people lives between 25 and 35 years. How come that these Millenials, youngsters who born between the year 1980 and 2000 suffer much more from burnout complaints and stress symptoms than the generations before them and more important what can they do about it?

The most important research shows us that the expectations that these Millenials have of life and especially the expectations that they have of themselves in this life are big. The group is diverse and it is nonsense to establish that it is only a group of people who thinks in the same way. But if you look at the group Millenials as a whole you see the differences that they have.

According to Launchpach, the differences can be summarized in a number of five most important factors.

First of all, Millenials are raised in a very individualistic way and see themselves as the measure of things. This means that they see themselves as responsible for all the happiness and success in their lives. But if you believe this, you also believe that if this fails, it is entirely your own fault.

The second thing is the time between adolescence and feeling mature as a millennial has become longer and longer.

This has to do with the fact that they have the things they associate with growing up like having children, buying a house that they are putting further and further ahead of them.

This is a fairly long and interesting time in which they are working independently or are studying while they are also developing themselves and trying to find out who they are and what they want in their lives. But the expectation that they have is that they achieve their goals before the age of thirty..

This expectation creates burnout complaints and stress.

Thirth thing is that Millenials mainly look at each other how successful they are in their lives. This also becoming easier with all the technology we have. What they often not thought of is that most of them only paint a very positive image of themselves on, for example, social media. It is very easy to build an unrealistic pattern of expectations of yourself through these ways.

As fourth Launchpach says that Millenials grew up at a time when things were going very well globally in economic terms. The sky was the limit and it was very normal at the time that when you finished your study you were offered a job. Those times were over when these millennials entered the labor market, and the economy was doing much worse worldwide. A tough reality check is what they get. They must bring down their standard life expectancy.

The last thing is, Millenials have very high demands of themselves Launchpach explains because the only thing they were told that if you do your best you can achieve everything you want. The reality appears to be different according to research. The worst thing a millennial can happen is that he fails against his own expectations.

These five form a kind of explosive cocktail for burnout complaints and stress. This cocktail also ensures that these Millenials do not take it slow when it is necessary for their health, instead of this they take one step extra. The big problem they have is sky-high expectations of their selves they can never meet and find it unacceptable they cannot meet them.

The challenge for this group is to learn to accept that you can (must) make mistakes in order to get to know yourself and grow as a person.